Why Can’t We Hit AND Pitch Simultaneously?

If you feel like the O’s started off the season hitting the cover off the ball, and losing every game something like 8-6, but are now at the other end of the spectrum, losing every game 3-2, then well, the simple chart above certainly seems to support that feeling.

Admittedly, the sample size for June is very small compared to those of the other months, but you could probably add those few games from the Detroit series at the end of May and the trend wouldn’t noticeably change.

The bats have turned silent just when the pitching started to pick it up, which has been frustrating for us O’s fans to watch. Especially from the top 1/3 of the order, which had been all the rage, but has fallen off dramatically. Brian Roberts is 0 for his last 17. Nick Markakis has seen his average dip below .300 for the first time all season. Even the arrival of Matt Wieters has been a let-down so far, as the kid is hitting just .123 over his first 21 AB, and has yet to even drive in a single run.

Hell, it’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Luke Scott has BEEN the Orioles’ offense over the past week, having driven in 14 of the Birds’ last 17 runs plated.

Let’s hope the off day Thursday rejuvenates the bats a bit.

On the pitching side, you could probably make the argument that the downward slope on the above graph can be explained away by simply pointing to the dismissal of one Adam Eaton from the team. While partly true, it’s probably not quite that simple. O’s starters strung together five consecutive quality starts last week, a feat that most of us probably didn’t believe would transpire all season long. Unfortunately, due to the aforementioned quiet bats, those starts went to waste, as we dropped three of the five.

The O’s look to get back on track tonight in Oakland, before beginning a 9-game home stand on Tuesday.

Posted by on Friday, June 5, 2009 at 9:03 am Filed under Uncategorized · Tagged with